Summary
Faran Fagen Shares his Top 20 Writing Resolutions for 2024.
Like you, I’ve got a full lineup of goals for 2024. The new year offers a time to look at what’s most important. My most pressing and concrete goals are a home-run revision that grabs the reader (my writing world), and to meet help my son and daughter finish the school year strong (my personal world). However, my general goal is to make a difference on all fronts. If I tackle each goal with the idea of making a difference and thinking of others, good things tend to happen.
Here is my top 20 list of writing goals for 2024:
- Keep the reader turning the page. Keep the reader turning the page. Keep the reader turning the page. (This is the No. 1 rule from my amazing literary agent, Joyce Sweeney.)
- Give the reader just enough detail so they’re dying to know what comes next.
- Choose a setting that adds to suspense and advances the story.
- Immerse myself in the main character so the reader feels like they’re experiencing the story through their five senses (think Avatar).
- Keep the reader turning the page. Keep the reader turning the page. Keep the reader turning the page.
- Each scene has urgency for the characters to reach their goals (or not).
- Conflict. Every scene filled with conflict. Conflict between characters. Inner conflict. Think all the Rocky movies.
- Transformation. How do the characters change? What do they learn? How do we journey through their transformation?
- In revision, know what to take out and what to leave in. I know this one’s easier said than done. A mentor once told me to defend each word like a lawyer defends each client.
- Keep the reader turning the page. Keep the reader turning the page. Keep the reader turning the page.
- PPR. In fantasy football, it’s points per reception. In writing, it’s “Pitch, Polish, Repeat.” Got this one from author/illustrator Fred Koehler. PPR forces me to examine each piece of writing and whether it’s ready for the world.
- Which stories are in my heart, and which stories are in my head? Put them together for a force of words.
- HUMOR. Use it to entertain and drive the story forward. Author Jonathan Rosen taught me a cool technique in which you state three things, and the third item is so bizarre it makes you laugh.
- Self-deprecate. Readers love a character with flaws. Makes the character believable and relatable.
- Keep the reader turning the page. Keep the reader turning the page. Keep the reader turning the page.
- Misdirection. Like a magician, surprise the reader in a delightful way.
- The Ticking Click. Got this one from the head of the Seymour Agency, Nicole Resciniti. From the opening chapter, have the main character race against the clock to reach his or her goal.
- Goal, Motivation, Conflict (GMC). Also from Nicole: What is the main character’s Goal, Motivation, and Conflict in each scene. (For more writing–and agenting–wisdom from Nicole, click here.)
- Each chapter ends with a cliffhanger to leave the reader wanting more. R.L. Stine of Goosebumps is the master of this.
- Keep the reader turning the page. Keep the reader turning the page. Keep the reader turning the page.
In the end, it’s about writing a book that makes a difference. Hope you reach your goals in 2024!
That’s not all, folks!
For more writing resolutions and goal-setting tips, check out this post from MUF member Meira Drazin, and this one from Dorian Cirrone.
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Melissa Roske is a writer of middle-grade fiction. Before spending her days with imaginary people, she interviewed real ones as a journalist in Europe. In London she landed a job as an advice columnist for J17 magazine, where she answered hundreds of letters from readers each week. Upon returning to her native New York, Melissa contributed to several books and magazines, selected jokes for Reader’s Digest (just the funny ones), and received certification as a life coach from NYU. In addition to her debut novel Kat Greene Comes Clean (Charlesbridge), Melissa’s short story “Grandma Merle’s Last Wish” appears in the Jewish middle-grade anthology, Coming of Age: 13 B’Nai Mitzvah Stories (Albert Whitman & Company). Melissa lives in Manhattan with her husband, daughter, and the occasional dust bunny. Learn more about Melissa on her Website and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.